US utility Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) recently announced it will request approval to invest up to USD$883 million to develop an additional 233 megawatts (MWs) of solar energy capacity.
The company made the announcement at an event marking the start of a renewable energy project that will transform a dormant brownfield in New Jersey into a solar farm. This will be the fifth PSE&G project that uses a brownfield or landfill site for energy production.
Brownfield sites are abandoned facilities often contaminated with materials that make them unsuitable for residential purposes.
“Every time we reclaim a landfill or brownfield site with solar panels, it’s a win for the people of New Jersey,” said PSEG chairman, president and CEO Ralph Izzo. “We are ready to do more of these projects and transform sites like this all over the state to generate more jobs along with clean renewable energy.”
The 1.06-MW PSE&G Hackensack Solar Farm is part of the utility’s Solar 4 All program. When the current phase of the program is complete early next year, PSE&G will have created about 175 direct jobs annually for the last three years and spent $300 million while developing 80 megawatts of solar capacity.
The program has two segments, each 40 megawatts. The first segment consists of installing a solar panel on 200,000 utility poles in PSE&G’s service territory; the largest pole-attached solar installation in the world. The second segment focuses on centralized solar, with PSE&G developing ground-mount solar farms and roof-top solar panel arrays on facilities it owns and at third-party sites.
Additionally, PSE&G’s solar arm develops, constructs, owns and operates large-scale solar facilities outside of its electric service territory and currently has three projects totalling 29.2 MW capacity.
The company’s new solar proposal will call for the development of another 136 megawatts capacity through its Solar 4 All program to build more grid-connected solar projects on landfills, brownfields and large parking lots. Additionally, there will be a 1MW pilot project program and the company also is seeking to help develop another 97MW through the third round of its Solar Loan program; which helps finance home solar and commercial solar power systems.
